Climate change: reducing emissions isn’t enough, world needs to decarbonise as well, says Zoe Lofgren

The world is doing worse than scientists predicted as climate change disruption is inevitable unless countries are able to decarbonise in addition to trying to reduce emissions, said Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Ranking Member of the U.S. House of Representatives on the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee.

Lofgren spoke on the topic ‘A congressional look at technology legislation’ with foreign journalists, who were on a reporting tour organised by the Foreign Press Center of the U.S. Department of State at the Capitol Hill on September 14.

“President Biden led the biggest increase in advancing clean energy technology in modern history – through the infrastructure bill, inflation reduction act, and chips and science act and it is unprecedented. To say we are not trying, we are,” said Lofgren while responding to a query asked by Business Recorder. “And other developed nations are also trying.”

Although the biggest carbon emissions come from developed economies such as China and the US, it is developing nations that are paying the price of global warming. For instance despite not even having a 1% contribution to the global carbon emission, Pakistan is the third most affected country by climate change.

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“But I have observed as nations develop they emit (carbon emissions) right. And so I just think we need to be realistic about how successful humankind has been in eliminating emission. It doesn’t mean we give up, we should not. But to think that just limiting emission at this point is not going to work. If you take a look at where we are, we are worse than the scientists said that we would be and we are at a point where climate change disruption is inevitable unless we are able to decarbonise in addition to trying to reduce emissions. So that’s the challenge we face.”

As the Ranking Member Rep. Lofgren is the highest ranking Democrat on the full committee. She has been a member of the House since 1995, representing the 18th Congressional District in California, which includes much of Silicon Valley. Rep.

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The House of Representatives’ Science, Space, and Technology Committee has jurisdiction over legislation and government agencies covering non-defence and non-health research and development. This includes areas involving innovation, scientific research and technology development. The Committee’s sub-committees include those focused on energy, environment, research and technology, space and aeronautics, and government oversight.

Fusion Energy

Meanwhile, Lofgren said there are now a large number of privately funded fusion energy companies making progress.

“In fact one company, in a recent fusion hearing, indicated that they have signed a contract to provide fusion energy on the grid in 2028. Now, will they make that, we’ll see. But that’s an aggressive prediction. They have signed a binding contract to do it.”

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), nuclear fusion is the process by which two light atomic nuclei combine to form a single heavier one while releasing massive amounts of energy.

“Ever since the theory of nuclear fusion was understood in the 1930s, scientists — and increasingly also engineers — have been on a quest to recreate and harness it. That is because if nuclear fusion can be replicated on earth at an industrial scale, it could provide virtually limitless clean, safe, and affordable energy to meet the world’s demand,” the article on fusion energy read.

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According to the Washington Post, Helion Energy has signed a contract with tech giant Microsoft in what the firm says is the world’s first power purchase agreement involving fusion energy — a potentially abundant, cheap and clean form of electricity that scientists have been trying to develop for decades. The company says its timeline is realistic, which is providing clean fusion energy by 2028.

However, Lofgren said some of the science needs to be funded by the federal government, for example research on material science and fuel cells.

“Some research can’t be done in the private sector,” she said, adding the science committee was working on those areas.

Lofgren was of the view that the planet is quickly becoming that “it will go on but humankind will not”.

“We have created a situation that is inconsistent with human habitation of the planet. And I feel a sense of urgency not only do we need to curb our emissions, frankly which is not something good humankind is very good at. But we need to rapidly decarbonise what we have already done. We have several ventures to decarbonise from direct air recovery.

“But those needed energy sources that do not currently exist. Energy source would have to be that is not the polluting source that fusion would envision. We have also directed the national science foundation to accelerate their work and how we might decarbonise the tremendous amount of carbon that the ocean has been sinkholes for.

“I really think we have a race against time. We need to do the research to decarbonise, we also need to do the research on fusion and we have to hope we are successful in time for us to survive as a species,” Lofgren concluded.